The Friendship Day celebrations hosted by the Parsi community on Sunday turned sour for the organisers with residents objecting and the police fining the revellers for flagging off a car rally from Shivaji Park at Dadar. It was ironical that the Additional Commissioner of Police, (Crime Branch), Deven Bharti flagged off the car rally later during the day from Dadar Parsi Colony.
Around eight vehicles were intercepted and action was taken by the police for creating obstacles in the Shivaji Park where there was no permission for parking. Senior Police Inspector (Traffic), Mahim division, Sanjay Diwadkar, said, “Residents objected to the parking in the ground and accordingly Rs 800 was collected from the violators as fine,” he said.
The Parsi Resource Group, founded by Jimmy Mistry, had organised the car rally with approximately 200 cars and 1,700 participants. While the group had sought permission from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, but it was denied.
The Assistant Municipal Commissioner, G north ward, NV Pai said that the group had sought permission to assemble the cars at the Shivaji Park. “However, we denied the permission as there was no specific formal event, it was a celebration and we did not see it fit to grant permission,” he said. Mistry denied that any rally participants were fined.
“However, the residents objected to the cars being parked at the Shivaji Park and we had to start from the Parsi Colony instead of the original spot,” he said. “We wanted to start campaigning for the Bombay Parsi Punchayat elections to be held in October and therefore decided to start with a car rally,” Mistry said.
The rally started from Dadar at around 9.30 am and ended at Lonavla, before returning back to Mumbai late in the evening.
original article here